


Allowed to Need

by abyss1826



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Alpha Upgraded Connor | RK900, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Caretaking, Domestic Fluff, Elijah Kamski & Gavin Reed are Siblings, Emotionally Repressed, Falling In Love, Fluff, Humor, Light Angst, M/M, No Sex, Omega Gavin Reed, Post-Pacifist Best Ending (Detroit: Become Human), Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-02
Updated: 2019-09-05
Packaged: 2020-10-05 09:22:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,293
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20486561
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/abyss1826/pseuds/abyss1826
Summary: Gavin usually spends his heats alone. He doesn't trust many people enough to date, and he hates the emotional attachment that comes with even a friend's help.Nines knows this.He also knows that Gavin can't be trusted enough to take care of himself under normal circumstances. So, unwilling to let Gavin come to work the next week looking like death warmed over, the Android decides to help out in as many boundary respecting ways as he can.Who said a machine can't hope?





	1. Chapter 1

If there was one  _ real _ thing Gavin hated about being an Omega, it was having to ask for his time of the month off. (Or, time of every third month off. Suppressants had gotten better, and it was a lot less dangerous to put off heats than it was when he was a kid.)

But he still hated having to go to Fowler’s office and inform his boss that, thanks to biology, he’d be completely useless for a whole quarter of the month.

It was a paid leave, obviously, he just despised leaving his cases to other people. 

The Captain didn’t mind, of course. Always told him that if he needed someone from work to help him through it that they’d get the same leave, told him that if he needed extra time to recover after having no one with him he just needed to call. But Gavin always refused. The only two Alphas he trusted not to screw him over with a surprise bond (still an unfortunately real threat, even now) were Tina and Hank. Hank was far beyond Gavin’s age range and would refuse for exactly that reason if he were to ask, and Tina… 

They’d tried that last time, when he had had poor timing after the revolution. The precinct had been swamped and he knew the heat would get itself over with sooner if someone was with him. Unfortunately, coming down from the pseudo-bond had them too emotionally fucked up to even be on the same floor for a week. He was never asking her for that ever again.

“Have you considered asking Nines?” The Captain’s question threw Gavin for a loop. “I’m not assuming he can’t bond, who knows with deviants, but there might be something he could do to lessen the emotional attachment, being an Android.”

“I am  _ not _ asking  _ Nines _ !” Gavin squeaked. 

“Alright then,” the beta chuckled. “Don’t push yourself to come back if you aren’t ready, alright? Or I’ll stick you with deskwork.”

The Detective grimaced as he left the office, knowing very well how genuine the threat was.

"See you in a week toaster," he said to Nines by way of greeting as he grabbed his phone from his chair. The Android frowned slightly, and Gavin caught sight of yellow at his temple. "Don't feckin' scan me you freak."

"My apologies Detective, I merely wished to confirm my suspicions as to why you would be leaving."

"Then do the human thing and ask," he retorted. Nines narrowed his eyes.

"Is that not something you consider private?"

"Well you've been doing your best to butt into every other aspect of my personal health lately," the man grumbled before downing the rest of his coffee.

"Well, for someone who wants to do his best at everything your lack of self-care is extremely counter-productive." Gavin's face turned red as Tina snorted from her desk.

"What?" He demanded.

"Looks like someone managed to find those redeeming qualities you keep hiding," she laughed.

"Shut up!" Gavin yelled, throwing the empty styrofoam cup at her. She caught it easily. "Why am I friends with you," he groaned.

"It's my BDE." Nines frowned, led spinning.

"Big Peg Energy," Chris muttered from his desk across from her, not even looking up from his case.

"Yes!" Tina declared, slamming her palms down. "Perfect!" She looked at Gavin and winked cheekily. "You know it's true~." The Detective sighed, turning to walk away.

"I'm gonna head slam your keyboard."

"Don't you mean headbutt?"

"Shut up," he called over his shoulder.

He stubbornly refused to laugh until he was out the door, just to keep up appearances.


	2. Chapter 2

That evening RK900 returned to his small apartment with a plan. He disabled his outward alpha traits and functions and took a thorough shower. Then he changed into more casual clothing, a pair of jeans and a pullover sweater that had hardly any traces of his scent on them.

Anything that Gavin's heat-honed instincts could latch onto was effectively erased, an ability the Android had that he argued put him in the best position of anyone to help his partner through nature's most awkward disturbance. Eventually Fowler had cleared him, after Nines assured that his intentions were to make sure his partner wasn't neglecting his _ other _ needs, and that he would not be roped into anything they knew Gavin would later regret.

It was a frustrating argument to have with his superior, but Nines had to appreciate the man's adamant regard for the detective's safety.

Confident in his plan, Nines took a cab to Gavin's home. As of last month he had been given the ability to let himself in, so he didn't need to worry about the man answering the door. (He also would have just hacked the electronic lock anyway, were this not the case).

"Detective?" He called, "it's Nines." Princess, a medium haired black cat, was the only one to greet him vocally as she chittered at him from her spot on the couch. He walked to the bedroom door and knocked. “Detective?”

Gavin opened his door a crack and squinted at him.

“The fck are you doing here?”

“Well, you don’t exactly care for yourself under even the normalest of circumstances, so I wanted to make sure-” Gavin slammed the door.

“You’re not fucking me!”

“I don’t intend to, I promise! I deactivated my secondary gender attributes, I wish to remain completely neutral.” When Gavin didn’t respond he did a minor temperature scan, which showed the detective to be huddled in bed. Nines decided to leave him alone, and went to the kitchen.

Gavin shoved his face into his mattress and screamed. He didn’t need to be babied by _ anyone _ , especially not by someone he _ worked with _ , and definitely not by a fucking ** _android_ ** ! He was capable on his own and always had been, and that wasn’t something that needed to be _ pitied _ . He didn’t need someone to be reliant on under _ any _circumstances. Twisting around his emotions was the horrifying thought that this is what the alpha had been gearing up for the whole time, getting him to eat healthier, sleep more and smoke less. He just wanted to use him.

His phone buzzed under a pillow and he grabbed for it, not noticing the text was from Nines until he was already reading it.

My primary objective is to make sure you eat well and are ingesting the appropriate amount of calories to support what you body is going through. I have absolutely zero intention of engaging in your heat, as we never discussed such a thing before hand, and in your prior experience with Officer Chen the arrangement was still regrettable.    
Please do not take this as an advancement on my part. 

Gavin tossed his phone off the bed and rolled up around a pillow with a small growl. He was starting to cramp bad, which wasn't helping his mood or situation what so ever.

After a few minutes of trying to stretch the tightness out of his lower back he was distracted by the tantalizing scent of bacon wafting under his door.

By god he was fucking starving.

When Nines heard the bedroom door open he stalled, preconstruction data popping up in his vision. He shoo'd it all away. No matter how advanced his technology was, he wasn't going to fool himself into thinking he could predict anything Gavin would do. He stole a glance behind him.

The Detective looked rather out of it, which couldn't surprise him. The sight of his smaller human form metaphorically swimming in a dark red hoodie doing odd things to Nines' processors did, though. Making the human dinner while he was, in a way, unwell, with him lounging around in nothing but _ that _ and his boxers was… oddly domestic. Nines filed the concurrent system instabilities away to examine during his next stasis.

“If you want me to leave, I will.” When he didn’t respond Nines went back to grating the cheese. Gavin stood there, surprisingly quiet, until Nines had finished cooking. He set the plate down on the bar-counter. “This should hold you for a while, I hope.” The detective stared, counting possibly _ three _ cheese and bacon embedded potatoes, and it was a wonderful sight to behold even after tamping down the soft squishy instinctual feelings about being cared for. Because Gavin was hungry, and irritable, and tired, and probably would have just grabbed himself a jar of peanut butter and a spoon and gone back to nesting if it weren’t for Nines. He grumbled a small thanks and sat down. Meowing loudly, Princess jumped onto the counter and went to her own feeder to eat as well, annoyed with her owner for ignoring her usual schedule. 

The android went about cleaning up after himself while Gavin playfully bickered with his talkative cat. As he was washing out the bacon pan his olfactory sensor alerted him to a new presence. He furrowed his brow and scanned around them. The only ones in the apartment were himself, Gavin, and the cat. He would have noticed in other ways first if someone had entered the apartment, after all. And it was most certainly a _ person _ smell. It resembled a tea shop, with notes of honey. Nines would like it if it wasn’t so puzzling. 

When the source occurred to him he felt like an idiot.

Gavin was in heat. His medication would be wearing off, and so would its scent blocking ability. This was just how Gavin _ normally _ smelled.

Well. It wasn’t how Gavin normally smelled, he was usually quite diluted and soapy (in a comforting way), it was how Gavin _ naturally _ smelled.

With that identified and filed away, Nines was capable of finishing his work. 

When Gavin finished eating, Nines left for a moment to take out the garbage and recycling. When he returned the fire alarm was going off and Gavin was swinging wildly at the smoke detector with a mop. He rushed over and turned it off, which was met with a nearly incomprehensible torrent of rage about how tall he was. It didn’t take a scan to figure out what happened. A glance at the open microwave and the smoldering tube in the sink told him everything.

“The fking rice burnt,” Gavin spat. The fuzzy heat wrap seemed to brown under his withering glare, but it was just the rice still burning inside of it. Nines turned the faucet back on. “Now I don’t have any GOD DAMN _ HEAT-” _ Gavin trailed off, a steady growl in his throat as he ripped up the couch cushions and stalked into the bedroom, “-NOT SUPPOSED TO TAKE BLOOD THINNING PAINKILLERS DURING THIS BUT THAT’S ALL THAT WORKS OTHER THAN _ HEAT _,” he screeched. Nines stood next to the smoking sink, hands clasped in front of him and unsure of much other than that Gavin would probably be yelling out loud about this whether the android was there or not. Princess sneezed, and he cracked open the top half of the window.

When the muttering and cursing had died down to a minimum Nines poked his head into the room.

“Detective? It is possible that I may be of assistance, if you would like.” Gavin glared up from where he was positioning the new walls of the nest. A cue to continue speaking. Nines hoped that was progress and a sign he wasn’t going to be kicked out soon. “I am capable of directing warmth to my hands, I could use this to help alleviate some of the discomfort in your back.”

Gavin’s growling quieted slightly as he weighed his pride and his desire to not be twisting in agony.

“Sure. Fek it.”

Nine’s code did something odd again as he sat down in the nest and watched the man situate the layers of comforters, blankets and pillows around them before hunkering down and getting comfortable on his stomach. His stress levels read higher than Nines liked, but this was new for each of them, and he was well aware of Gavin’s disdain of being cared for. He waited until Gavin lifted the back of his hoodie to expose his lower back before moving. Faint pock marks and acne scars made the android smile slightly. All little imperfections, signs from a past stage of life, that made his partner so human. He warmed his hands to what he deemed a proper temperature and began to work small circles into the man’s tight muscles.

“Is this alright?” he asked quietly.

“Mrmm,” Gavin hummed, his face squished into a pillow. Slowly the detective relaxed, and Nines could see his stress levels lowering. The smell of honey became stronger, and the android began to wonder if that was the scent he produced when he was happy. The blockers prevented that sort of thing from coming through. There was a whole folder missing from his file of Gavin, he realized, because of that. After a bit, Gavin turned his head. “You don’t smell right.” Nines paused.

“What do you mean?”

“You’re not like… you.”

“Oh. Well, I disabled that output and showered before I arrived here, I didn’t want to chance my scent… affecting you.”

“Oh.” The man sounded disappointed.

“What do I smell like?” Nines asked, genuinely curious.

“Umm… like pine cones… mostly? And boiling water? When you’re angry you smell like burning leaves.”

“How do you identify the smell of boiling water?” Nines chuckled. Gavin’s face turned red.

“I don’t fking know that’s just what you smell like, you asked, dickhead.”

Nines laughed. A true, staticky, dial-up ass noise of real non-fabricated android laughter that Gavin had only ever heard from Connor in passing.

Maybe letting him stay over for this wouldn’t end up being such a disaster after all….


End file.
